A Tour of Tors

As the title of this post implies today (Friday) we returned to Dartmoor and visited or viewed a whole lot of Tors. These included Hart Tor, Ingra Tor, North Hessary Tor, Sharpitor, Leather Tor, Down Tor, Cramber Tor, Vixen Tor, Pew Tor, Brent Tor, Yes Tor and King's Tor. 

But before we begin our tour of tours a brief review of earlier in the day.

Morning

My body seems to have decided 5.30am is wake up time, a little later than at home when I normally wake at 5am, but I wake without an alarm and when I get to my mobile phone out in the living room it says 5.30am. So, that seems to be just right.

I had breakfast and completed yesterday's blog post, Drew got up at 7am and I did my teeth, shaved and showered then collected our clothes together ready to put into the machine for a wash.

Travelling to Dartmoor

We left Exmouth at 9.15am and travelled the 41 miles to Princetown arriving at 10.30am. As we were heading for the opposite side of the moor from that which we visited the last time, we went down the A38 before taking the B3352 and finally the B3357. This is the route:  

Exmouth to Princetown

Dartmoor Prison Museum

We arrived at the Dartmoor Prison Museum which is situated in the Dairy of the Prison. While the Prison itself is still alive and functioning a few 100 yards down the road, the dairy has long been closed. (Amusingly having spent a large part of my life making sure I wrote diary, when I meant diary not dairy, I am finding it hard to type dairy and have had to go back and correct myself twice already!)

When I visited Dartmoor on Sunday last, three of my Facebook friends highlighted the Prison Museum as a place worth visiting, they were right - thank you Den, Neil and Fiona.

One of the restrictions for visitors to the museum, is that, due to prisoners sometimes working on site, no photos are allowed on the premises. But even without photo memories the prison's story is a fascinating one.

The history of the Prison is fascinating. It is the oldest operational prison in the UK having been founded in March 1806 and become the site where French prisoners of war were housed during the Napoleonic Wars. It opened in 1809 and was full be the end of the year. Its capacity was extended when in 1812 Britain was at war with America (the 1812 - 1815 war) and American Prisoners of War were also located here. 

Disease, e.g. pneumonia, typhoid and smallpox. killed more than 11,000 French prisoners and 271 Americans. Their graveyards and memorials are at the rear of the prison and some of the images in the museum are pictures of these. 

The prison was repurposed as a penal institution in 1850 and in the 1914-1918 war was further repurposed as a labour camp for 'Conchies' - Conscientious Objectors, who for moral or religious grounds, refused to fight and kill.

Following the end of the 14-18 war the prison returned to its previous function and is still doing so. There are currently 640 places at Dartmoor and 627 inmates. Space for a couple more as the person selling tickets joked as we entered the Museum!! 

The museum artefacts are many and varied, from history and letters from or to prisoners, to farming machinery and photographs of various Prison activity including arable farming, animal farming, arts and crafts made by the prisoners ranging from small to large items as well as traditional prison work like Mailbag production. The sense the photographs give is of a big, productive operation. Though also indicate that all is not always easy in prison, with a special section on the 1932 riot at the prison which saw many prisoners escape, only to be caught on the moor, by police and army deployments, over the next 24 hours.  

The museum also includes some of the life history of its famous prisoners including the political prisoner, Eamon de Valera, first Prime Minister, and later President, of the Republic of Ireland and its notorious prisoners e.g. Frank Mitchell (the ‘Mad Axeman’) and Ronnie Biggs along with the few who were successful in escaping from the prison including ‘Rubber Bones’ Webb who wriggled to freedom via the hot air warming ducts and ‘Foxy’ Fowler who absconded from the toilets in this museum building!

Visit complete we were encouraged to buy some of the current artefacts which the inmates are producing. They are actually well made garden ornaments. 

Lunch

From the Museum we drove the 0.6 of a mile down to the centre of Princetown calling at the High Moorland Visitor Centre. 

The centre gives a fascinating insight into the landscape of the moor and of the way it has been shaped by human habitation since the Mesolithic era 12,000 to 6,000 years ago. For more detail on this information check out the images on Flickr, starting here and clicking/swiping left.

The building has another source of fame too, being the former Duchy Hotel where Arthur Conan Doyle stayed on the moor and where he met Mr. Baskerville, who was his coach driver over the moors. The Hound of the Baskervilles integrating some of his experiences on the moor into a well loved story. 

A model of Holmes in the Visitor's Centre

Before embarking on our walk, we visited the Old Police Station Cafe along the road from the visitor's centre for a spot of lunch.

It being Friday I opted for the egg mayo sandwich on brown bread and Drew for tuna mayo on white bread. This was washed down by a black coffee for me and a latte for Drew.

Princetown Walking Tour

As with our previous visit to the Moor we took advantage of the Audio tour available from the National Parks website. The zip file with the downloadable audios are here for anyone interested. A transcript of the route can be found here.

Heading off past the Dartmoor Brewery we came to an old Railway Line which has been layed out for cycling and walking.

Drew noted that following a Grey Granite Road might not bring on a song as much as 'Follow the Yellow Brick Road', but of course we sang 'Follow the Grey Granite Road' for the next few minutes 😂 The path has horses and cows along the way. The full photo set of the walk - a lot - can be seen on Flickr, start here and click/swipe left.

We walked past the old Railway station and down to the first of the railway bridges which spanned a tiny trickle of a brook, one assumes from its height that the water gets higher in the winter.

From here we walked across a B road and a stream then up a path towards Hart Tor.

Drew leaping the stream

Hart Tor isn't as steep as Bellever Tor but, due to its position on the hill provides an amazingly diverse range of views

including down to the sea in Plymouth

and across to four other Tors

the views were so amazing that Drew took a full circular range of shots as a panorama.

From Hart Tor the landscape drops down to the Hart Tor brook. On the way it passes a barrow (grave) which seemed to still, so many generations later, be a source of nutrition for the ponies and cows.

Archaeologists of the area think this grave was one of the famous leaders of the area as it has a Stone Row pointing the way to it, which descendants/worshippers would have followed in some ritual way.

We were warned that we would have to use steeping stones to cross the Hart Tor brook, which is fast running, but luckily some friendly sort had provided a metal sheet as a bridge.

Having crossed the brook we soon reached Black Tor Falls - which had a lovely sound of crashing water. Black Tor Falls is not only noticeable because the beauty of the sights and sounds, but because of the ruins of Tin working which took place above it.

A Blowing House which housed a tin furnace

From the falls we tool a short walk to the aqueduct where the Devonport Leat (water supply) crosses the River Mervy, cue a song about 'Leat across the Mervy', I don't need to tell you which tune!

The Leat, on crossing the river Mervy, becomes an optical illusion, where due to the fast fall of the riverbed, it appears that the water of the Leat is running uphill. 

The Leat, with its clear fresh water, now runs into the Burrator Reservoir, but previously it went all the way to Devonport on the coast.

The next part of the walk, enjoyable as it was in the comfortable 18C sunny weather, was uphill and led across a B road before joining back up with the disused railway line and the impressive Ingra Tor. On Flickr you will see photos of Vixen Tor, Pew Tor and Brent Tor (with its church on top) in the distance. However, the walk took us close up to Ingra Tor.

Once around Ingra Tor we were able to clammer into the Quarry behind the Tor which had been used when the railway was being constructed. You can still see signs of the worked stone. 

From Ingra Tor it was up another very steep path (these tours seem to keep the steep parts of the walk until late on - puff, puff) up to King's Tor where there are signs of the old railway holt, now just looking like abandoned stones.

Finally, the walk returned to the Princetown area and we got into the car. It had taken us 3 hours 30 minutes to do 7.9 miles (19,400 steps) [Co-pilot's note: It is worth, dear readers, noting that our friendly tour guide indicated that this route would be just under 10 kilometres, when we reached 11 kilometres I thought it somewhat odd, when we reached 12 kilometres I was getting concerned. It finished as 12.49 kilometres. I think they are just as geographically challenged as me!!] 

It had been worth the effort and the time to see the sights and feel the relaxing flow of endorphins which comes from putting some effort into getting pleasure. With the uneven ground and steep parts, a walk like this seems great for the mental health - you can't focus on anything else when your mind needs to concentrate on where your foot is going next and the effort to walk on. The benefit of a walk like this is like Christian Meditation or Buddhist Mindfulness in encouraging the mind to focus on one thing and pushing all else aside. 

Back to Exmouth

We got back to the car at 4.05pm and went back the 41 miles to our accommodation arriving back at 5.25. Time for a wash and rest before dinner tonight, which will be the subject of the next post.